These are very hot days for Atlantia, among the Alitalia dossier, which remains open even after Fs's turnaround, the tussle over the concessions to the subsidiary Autostrade and the new industrial plan which will be presented next week and which is particularly awaited, precisely by virtue of the tug-of-war with the government over the revocation. According to what Il Messaggero writes, it will be Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, as on other occasions, who will act as mediator between the various souls of the executive. Meanwhile, however, the Benetton family holding company aims to convince even the most extremist (namely the 5 Star Movement, through its political boss Luigi Di Maio) to find an agreement by presenting a particularly substantial plan, which gives a sign of collaboration guaranteeing large investments and controls on over 350 viaducts throughout the country.
The document has not yet been made official, but according to rumors this means an expected expense - only for maintenance interventions - of at least half a billion, to which must be added another half a billion to be budgeted for the reconstruction of the Morandi Bridge and for compensation to Genoese families. In addition, investments of several million are in the air for an effective digitization of the control system, to be carried out in partnership with IBM. The total gives over 1 billion, but the feeling is that it won't be enough, because the minister Paola De Micheli has hinted that she expects at least another 700 million to be put in place, as well as controlled tolls for a reasonable period. This will be another battleground, since Autostrade per l'Italia has made no reference to price reductions on tariffs, even if it has given a small sign of availability, at least by freezing the increase in tolls on the entire network.
The game is therefore still to be played: the hypothesis of revocation still stands, but the idea of a very heavy fine is taking shape more and more, which according to Equita's calculations could even exceed 3,5 billion, but which it would serve to close the matter once and for all, giving a just "punishment" to Atlantia for the mismanagement and at the same time avoiding the 23,5 billion indemnity that the Government would have to pay in the event of revocation. However, the hypothesis does not convince the markets too much: together with the news of Fitch's downgrade (from BBB to BB), it brings the stock into negative territory, going against the trend with a brilliant session for Piazza Affari. Meanwhile, time is running out: the deadline for the "negotiation" is January 30th, when precisely by virtue of the recently approved Milleproroghe rule, Atlantia could return the motorway concessions to the State, however receiving as compensation the total revenues expected by the company between now and 2038.
